CASE: H-1B Extension
PETITIONER: Architectural Design Company
BENEFICIARY: Turkish Architect
LOCATION: New York, NY
Our client is an architectural design firm headquartered in New York City. They contacted our office in March 2017 to seek assistance from our office for their foreign employee’s H-1B extension. The beneficiary is from Turkey and he obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in architecture. The proffered position for the Beneficiary is architect which we argued qualifies as a specialty occupation. He got his H-1B status through our office’s help in 2014.
After retention, our office promptly filed the H-1B visa petition with various supporting documents on March 24, 2017 via premium processing. We also gathered supporting documents from both the Petitioner and Beneficiary and did research on the industry, focusing on similarly sized businesses, to demonstrate that a bachelor’s degree is commonly required for this position.
Moreover, in our brief, our office argued that the degree requirement is common to this industry in parallel positions among similar organizations. Also, we provided evidence that Petitioner’s competitors normally require degrees in a specific specialty for closely related positions like that of Architect. Moreover, our office asserted that the nature of the specific duties is so specialized and complex that knowledge required to perform the duties is usually associated with the attainment of a baccalaureate or higher degree in a specific specialty.
Eventually, our client’s H-1B application was approved by the USCIS Nebraska Service Center on March 28, 2017. He can work for his employer until May 2020.